Educating Norfolk: Funding for Norfolk schools

On average, Norfolk schools receive almost £1,000 less per pupil than London schools, with some inner-city boroughs receiving far more. But while the recently-formed Norfolk Primary Headteachers’ Association said the figures were “shocking”, some headteachers said that while they could put any extra money to good use, resources were not a key issue for them.

Gordon Boyd, of Norfolk County Council, said that while “Norfolk has not done brilliantly, it really has not done badly”, and had a similar level of funding to others areas with similar demographics, economies and rurality. He added that although London schools have significantly higher per-pupil funding than Norfolk, much of this reflected the need to pay higher salaries in the capital.

He said the biggest issue for Norfolk was not the level of funding, but the distribution of funding, which is skewed by the large number of small schools, which receive significantly more money per pupil than larger schools.

Currently trending

NCC have favoured, and still favour pouring lots of money into very small schools. The only reason I can think of is that they have an intrinsic interest in preserving small schools, perhaps their own children either go there or work there.